Biotech lobby defeat in Europe: MEPs strengthen govt GM opt-outs

MEPs have defeated a European Commission proposal to prevent member states from banning genetically modified crops on health and/or environmental grounds.

Even if the EU approves genetically modified (GM) crops for
cultivation, Tuesday’s vote now allows national bans for
environmental or health reasons.

The European Food and Safety Authority approved GM for use in the
EU, but a number of states opposed to GM, such as France, wanted
rights to block crops under the principle of
‘subsidiarity’, or devolution to individual states.

Under previous rules, the European Commission had proposed in
2010 to let member states ban GM crops on their territory for
national planning or socio- economic reasons.

But this slightly messy compromise would have allowed biotech
corporations to ride roughshod over any country in the EU that
didn’t want GM.

Any governments wanting to ban GM would first have been obliged
to try and strike a deal with the biotech companies, in order to
exclude their territory from GM cultivation. This would have
allowed biotech companies to put heavy pressure on certain
governments and put them at risk of costly law suits.

The compromised agreement, which was voted through by Europe’s
Council of Ministers in June, was branded as a “third rate
agreement” by the French parliamentarian, Corine Lepage.

“The Council's text does not give a solid judicial basis to
realistically ban GMOs. It gives biotechnology companies a
tremendous influence in the decision-making process,” she
said in a statement at the time.

But the original proposal has now been amended on the grounds of
environmental and health concerns after securing the support of
the European Conservatives and Reformists bloc in the European
Parliament.

The new amended proposal “will leave GM cultivation firmly in
the hands of national governments, who can decide for themselves,
as long as the right protections are in place, whether they want
to grow GM or not,” said Paul Brennan MEP, the UK Labour
Party’s European spokesperson on agriculture, as quoted by the
Guardian.

The new amendments will make the decisions’ of member states
clearer and harder for biotech companies to challenge.

“We want to keep this issue out of the courts as companies
are much more likely to challenge a member states’ decision that
is unclear,” said Catherine Bearder, a Liberal Democrat MEP.

The UK Conservative Party supported the changes within the
subsidiarity principle, despite the fact that the UK is a
supporter of GM crops.

Julie Girling, the Conservative Party’s environment spokeswoman,
said that the commission’s opt-out idea would ensure a quick,
simple and legally sound solution to approving GM.

Separately, a new report published on Friday by Test Biotech, a
platform of ecological scientists, said the MON810 genetically
modified maize strain (the only one approved for growth in
Europe), had negative health impacts on the kidneys, livers and
pancreases of rats. This will provide further ammunition to the
European anti-GM lobby.